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Re: Relative strengths: IDL vs. PV-Wave ?



Dear All,

  I did some searches using DejaNews and found previous
comments regarding the merits of IDL and PV-Wave.
I have taken the liberty to abbreviate the replies;
the context may be missing, my apologies.
Use DejaNews to retrieve the original posts. The query string was:
 IDL & PV-Wave & (compar* | differen* | better | best | review*)

Also I do not know how up to date the information is with respect
to the latest versions, but I have included post dates.

  If you think these facts and opinions are mistaken, please add yours!

    --- Martin
-------------------------------------------------------------------
grunes@news.nrl.navy.mil (Mitchell R Grunes)   
sci.image.processing,  comp.lang.apl   posted 1996/09/24, 1996/08/15

  IDL vs PV-Wave
    IDL handles more image file formats
    IDL handles 24 bit display, PV-Wave could not, at least in the past
    PV-Wave has smooth animation on SGI's, but IDL flickers
    IDL has better memory use 
    IDL has better world maps
    IDL has possibly better documentation
------------------------------------------------------------------
Comparison IDL and Matlab
Source: http://www.amara.com/ftpstuff/IDL_Matlab.txt

IDL vs Matlab
Matlab
 + more compact syntax
 - no explicit types

 + more beautiful graphics 
 - non-intuitive to customize graphics
 + more built-in functions than IDL
 + more toolkits
 - difficult to batch-process a directory of files
 + better technical support than IDL

IDL
 + more of a true programming language: procedures, functions, explicit
types
 + more file formats supported  (HDF, CDF, easier to write new ones)
 + file I/O easier
---------------------------------------------------------------------
William Clodius <wclodius@lanl.gov>
Date:         1996/09/23
Newsgroups:   sci.image.processing
...
Both packages provide accesss to extensive numerial libraries, PV-Wave
to those of IMSL (this may be an optional add-on), IDL to an enxtensive
subset of Numerical Recipes Routines.  No knowledgeable person would
argue that the Numerical Recipes routines are better than those of IMSL,
but the wide availability of the Numerical Recipes text may make
cutomization of those routines easier in IDL.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups:   sci.image.processing
From:         medimtintl@aol.com (MedImTIntl)
Date:         1996/09/21

(...) Any "additional library" from the VNI is
many times outweighed by the contributions in the User Library developed
by hundreds of users around the world that continuously contribute and
enrich the RSI offerings.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

comp.lang.idl-pvwave
Subject:      Re: Can I do this without using loops?
From:         David Ritscher <david.ritscher@zibmt.uni-ulm.de>
Date:         1996/06/14
Message-Id:   <31C17DE4.50C@zibmt.uni-ulm.de>

IDL. Version 3.1.0 and PV-WAVE v6.01.  Sometimes one was faster,
sometimes the other (often by a factor of two or more!).

       Insert columns      Insert rows
        IDL   PV-Wave     IDL   PV-Wave
1.     22.84   17.58     30.48   21.31
2.     22.77   30.81      4.45    1.48
3.      3.88    9.73      3.87    9.70
4.     12.05   11.93      5.67    7.17
5.     89.24  164.56     87.51  163.15
6.    141.93  385.72    140.45  389.53
7.     92.75  166.44     92.82  169.71
8.      1.30    4.96      9.78   10.29
9.     30.75   28.71     18.40   21.60


Tested using the following number of rows and columns:  1000, 30000

       Insert columns      Insert rows
        IDL   PV-Wave     IDL   PV-Wave
1.     84.95   71.09       Inf     Inf
2.       Inf     Inf     28.52   22.69
3.     27.65   42.95     30.88   50.10
4.    129.53  138.84    124.39  126.26
5.    300.62  547.51    296.74  556.55
6.        -  1284.83        -  1300.17
7.       Inf     Inf       Inf     Inf
8.     20.07   28.76       Inf     Inf
9.        -  3100.02    158.07  161.23

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups:   comp.lang.idl-Pvwave
Date:         1996/06/15
Subject:      Re: Can I do this without using loops?
From:         David Ritscher <david.ritscher@zibmt.uni-ulm.de>
...
Ratios of execution times of rebin(/sample) / rebin():

problem with 3000, 3000 rows and columns:

             IDL          PV-Wave
test8        1.22997      0.676364
test8_rows   0.999363     0.956496

problem with 1000, 30000 rows and columns:

             IDL          PV-Wave
test8        1.06719      0.936516